000014070 001__ 14070 000014070 005__ 20241223145828.0 000014070 02470 $$2doi$$ahttps://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6196 000014070 037__ $$aTEXTUAL 000014070 037__ $$bArticle 000014070 041__ $$aeng 000014070 245__ $$aCompetition with insectivorous ants as a contributor to low songbird diversity at low elevations in the eastern Himalaya 000014070 269__ $$a2020-03-30 000014070 336__ $$aArticle 000014070 520__ $$aCompetitive interactions between distantly related clades could cause complementary diversity patterns of these clades over large spatial scales. One such example might be ants and birds in the eastern Himalaya; ants are very common at low elevations but almost absent at mid-elevations where the abundance of other arthropods and insectivorous bird diversity peaks. Here, we ask if ants at low elevations could compete with birds for arthropod prey. Specifically, we studied the impact of the Asian weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina), a common aggressive ant at low elevations. Diet analysis using molecular methods demonstrate extensive diet overlap between weaver ants and songbirds at both low and mid-elevations. Trees without weaver ants have greater non-ant arthropod abundance and leaf damage. Experimental removal of weaver ants results in an increase in the abundance of non-ant arthropods. Notably, numbers of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera were most affected by removal experiments and were prominent components of both bird and weaver ant diets. Our results suggest that songbirds and weaver ants might potentially compete with each other for arthropod prey at low elevations, thereby contributing to lower insectivorous bird diversity at low elevations in eastern Himalaya. Competition with ants may shape vertebrate diversity patterns across broad biodiversity gradients. 000014070 536__ $$oRufford Foundation 000014070 536__ $$oField Museum 000014070 536__ $$oUniversity of Chicago 000014070 536__ $$oSchlumberger Foundation 000014070 536__ $$oNational Geographic Society 000014070 540__ $$a<p>© 2020 The Authors.</p> <p>This is an open access article under the terms of the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution</a> License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> 000014070 542__ $$fCC BY 000014070 594__ $$aAll data and code used for analyses is available on a GitHub repository (<a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2651358">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2651358</a>). 000014070 6531_ $$aant exclusion 000014070 6531_ $$ainter-clade competition 000014070 6531_ $$amacroecology 000014070 6531_ $$amolecular diet analyses 000014070 690__ $$aBiological Sciences Division 000014070 691__ $$aEcology and Evolution 000014070 691__ $$aEvolutionary Biology 000014070 7001_ $$aSupriya, K.$$uUniversity of Chicago 000014070 7001_ $$aPrice, Trevor D.$$uUniversity of Chicago 000014070 7001_ $$aMoreau, Corrie S.$$uUniversity of Chicago 000014070 773__ $$tEcology and Evolution 000014070 8564_ $$uhttps://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/14070/files/Ecology%20and%20Evolution%20-%202020%20-%20Supriya%20-%20Competition%20with%20insectivorous%20ants%20as%20a%20contributor%20to%20low%20songbird%20diversity%20at.pdf$$yArticle$$9034df1cd-a92a-41a8-8413-6cb76753cd54$$s965422$$ePublic 000014070 8564_ $$uhttps://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/14070/files/ece36196-sup.zip$$ySupporting information$$9353ef0a9-0343-45e1-95e1-b2864242b384$$s1131752$$ePublic 000014070 908__ $$aI agree 000014070 909CO $$ooai:uchicago.tind.io:14070$$pGLOBAL_SET 000014070 983__ $$aArticle